In recent years, the United States military establishment has rediscovered the importance of being able to safely and efficiently deploy equipment and supplies during foreign expeditions. In particular, the military establishment has realized the benefits of being able to transport and store supplies for units of decreasing size, for example, at the platoon or even squad level.
For hazardous materials, U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,595 issued on Oct. 24, 1989 to Van Valkenburgh discloses a storage enclosure having a containment pan supported on a base frame to allow for visual inspection of the underside of the pan. U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,206 issued on Oct. 18, 1994, also to Van Valkenburgh, discloses another hazardous material storage enclosure with secondary containment shelves that are suspended from a sub-roof assembly.
U.S. Statutory Invention Registration H1477 issued on Sep. 5, 1995 to Payne discloses a mobile containment structure having a plurality of modular shelving units bolted to the floor of the structure for housing and storing cans of paint, drums of lubricant, and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,908 issued on Apr. 30, 1996 to Van Valkenburgh et al. discloses another mobile safety structure having a removable and grated floor which allows access to a containment pan underneath the floor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,739, issued to Payne et al. on Apr. 7, 1998, discloses another mobile safety structure formed by tandem and/or stacked modular units. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,591 issued on Jul. 28, 1998 to Payne discloses yet another mobile safety structure with five compartments that are separated by fire-proof walls.
In addition to hazardous materials transport systems, a wide variety of other logistical support systems are now containerized in order to speed troop deployments. As shown in the patents noted above, the military uses a wide variety of specialized containers to not only transport various cargoes in compliance with national and international requirements, but also to store and secure this equipment in the theater of operations. Higher readiness requirements and more limited opportunities for the pre-positioning of military supplies in foreign countries also mean that many military units must store at least some of their supplies in these containers while they are stationed at home between deployments. Since this cargo is often pre-packaged into conventional cardboard boxes which are then stacked side-to-side in end-loaded containers, the entire cargo must often be removed from the container and the boxes in order to locate just one particular item. The leftover boxes must then be collected and disposed of, or recycled, before the container can be reloaded with the remaining stores.
These and other logistical problems can be particularly troublesome for bulk items or “small stores.” In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,913 to Bertolini discloses a cargo container fitted with a plurality of steel storage cabinets which are integrated into the structure of the container so as to maintain their position and shape when the container is subject to external forces during transportation. In particular, the cabinets are bolted to the side walls of the container, and to each other, with an aisle between them so that articles inside the cabinets can be accessed only by entering through doors at one end of the container, and then opening a particular drawer into the aisle. The cabinet drawers cannot be accessed from outside the container, nor can the cabinets be easily switched from one container to the next.
Each of U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,008, issued to Payne on Oct. 9, 2001, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,185,779, issued to Payne on Mar. 6, 2007, disclose various embodiments of a transport and storage system having removable and interchangeable storage modules for use with a transport and storage device in the form of a standard size (8 foot wide by 8 foot high by 20 foot long ISO) freight container.
The subject matter of each of the patents discussed above is hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.
A problem arises when it is desired to use the above discussed storage modules, which are typically designed for use with specific freight containers, with modular cargo containers, such as tricon or quadcon containers. Such modular cargo containers are designed to have dimensions, such that, when the modular cargo containers are combined (for example, in sets of three or four) the combined modular cargo containers have the same exterior dimensions as a standard size freight container.
There is currently a glut of such modular cargo containers in the world marketplace, but the usefulness thereof is diminished due to the still relatively large interior size of such modular cargo containers. For example, a tricon container will have exterior dimensions of 8 foot wide by 8 foot high by 6 foot 5.5 inches long. Such modular cargo containers are not convenient for storage of smaller, bulk items of cargo, such as, for example, personal equipment.
Given the large number of existing modular cargo containers, and the prohibitive cost of designing and producing replacement containers, there is a need to adapt existing modular cargo containers for use with existing and after developed storage modules without substantial alteration of the structure of the existing modular cargo containers.